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Agility Info, Please.

Bella is really energetic and intelligent. I'm having trouble keeping up with her mentally...
I was wondering if I could get as much info on agility as possible:
- what's involved (activities and entry criteria etc.)
- what age can they start
- how to start
- how to ease her into the activities
etc...

First find a good agility club, look for a mini class if you can find one...normally you wouldn't jump before 1yr old, but you can do the other smaller items and get her used to the atmosphere/dogs/noise etc, a good trainer will show you how to train her in agility...every dog is different in it's temperment so it's hard to stick to very rigid rules of training, let them see her in action and go from there! A good club will do competion work as part of a team, work hard and get in there!

Mine all adore it and so will you, an excellent way to bond and train together.

Vets, groomers etc will have some agility club details and numbers I'm sure.

Agility is great for both human and dog BUT: a dog needs to be at least 12-18 months before most trainers would allow into agility because the running and jumping could damage developing joints. Definitely should NOT do it until 12 months minimum.

A regular obedience class or clicker class or both would give her just as much of a workout too -- the reality is that a mental workout is going to tire her a LOT more than an hour of running. Seriously! So I'd look for a really fun, rewards -- based obedience class and if you have already done one, do the next level or consider a clicker class (as I think she is still too young for agility, isn't she?).

Some classes like pre-agility and agility fundamentals are appropriate for puppies. They are learning the basic building blocks for agility, yet not running courses. It's more like getting your dog to focus on you, overcoming distractions, learning hind leg awareness, getting used to walking on a board, wobble board, etc. The classes we took with our pups were called 'Little Sports.'